LCPW approves contractor for Forest Hills sewer replacement project

The Laurens Commission of Public Works (LCPW) board of commissioners unanimously approved a resolution on Monday night awarding the contract for the sewer replacement project in Forest Hills.

The contract was awarded to North American Pipeline Management, Inc. of Greenville, SC. They will install 1,600 linear feet of eight inch gravity sewer for $397,849.

Three other companies bid on the project but North American Pipeline Management was the low bidder. This will be their first project for LCPW.

The Forest Hills sewer replacement project was slated for mid-2016 but paperwork and the acquisition of easements slowed the process, according to CPW General Manager John Young.

In April of this year, the LCPW board of commissioners unanimously approved a resolution establishing just compensation for the easements to be acquired for the project. This resolution was required by the EPA.

Young said that the LCPW had to acquire sewer easements from several property owners. The money to acquire the easements came from the grant for the project.

CPW was waiting on approval from DHEC and the EPA in 2016 but that paperwork is complete. The engineering for the project is also complete and once crews begin working, the project is expected to take 3 to 6 months to complete. Young expects work to begin immediately.

The project is set to replace aging sewer lines that are also undersized. Young said that those sewer lines are in bad shape and that he understood they were installed in the 1950’s.